


Stinkbug

by Mana_Sputachu



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa: Another Episode
Genre: Angst, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 13:43:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7510597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mana_Sputachu/pseuds/Mana_Sputachu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>(People suck.)</i><br/>[Touko, Kameko and the trust issues.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stinkbug

**Author's Note:**

> Translated version of [Cimice](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7224076) (a story of mine, written in italian)

_I don’t need anyone._

Touko keeps telling this to herself while she walks down to the classroom. _It’s not like I’m in a hurry,_ she lies. It’d be more correct to say that she doesn’t want to be in hurry, that she doesn’t want to enter the classroom and that she doesn’t want to see those assholes of her classmates: she would punch them in the face if she only had the guts, and there’s also that little strange voice inside her that keeps telling her that there’s no need to waste her time with them.

_(Junior high students suck.)_

If she wasn't involved in the everyday social rituals of her peers, she'd observe them with polite disinterest: crumpled paper notes filled with insults thrown at her from every angle of the class, obscene drawings on the chalkboard. Everything just for her, and her only fault was to believe that the popular boy was really interested in her — they continue to harrass her as she idly lets them be and endures it all.

After all, kids can be more cruel than adults.

 

_“You really thought I wanted to date you?”_

_The laugh that follows those words hits harder than a punch in the stomach, and she doesn’t know how to reply._

_“It’s just because I’ve lost a bet. I couldn’t really like someone like you. And i bet you no one else will.”_

_She bites her lower lip and forces hersefl to not cry._

_Touko promises to herself that she will never trust anybody again._

 

That event (together with the love letter she wrote to her first crush, which she found pinned to the school board) is archived in a mental file that she will never open again. She tries to not think about it, but her classmates seem to disagree with this: while some of them have fun in making her suffer because of her own existence ( _“How’s your dad doing? Life’s wonderful with two wives, isn’t it?”, “Your moms hate you, right?”_ ), others tried to fake some interest in her just because of their own selfish interests ( _“Your novel is amazing! Can you sign me a copy, please?”_ ), and Touko tries to restrain her own killer instincts, feeling crushed like a stinkbug by the burden of all that hypocrisy. She prefers to stay silent.

And she hoards all those bad feelings.

She asks herself what will happen when she will finally reaches her limit.

_(People suck.)_

 

*

 

Night is her favourite time to sit at the desk and write, when there are no annoying noises, no people to bother her, or one of her moms to show up in her room.

_(Classmates leaves you alone.)_

She likes it even during summer, when her room is hot - and she has to force herself to shower more than she would like to - but the night breeze is refreshing and the song of cicadas keeps her company. She turns on her chair and looks out of the window: the sky is clear and she can see the stars, and the moon is bright too. Surely that amazing view could be even better if she’d turn off the lights, but she can’t do it.

Touko hates the darkness.

_(And bad girls deserve to stay in the darkness.)_

 

_“Mom! Mom forgive me, please!”_

_Her mom doesn’t answer, still dragging Touko by her arm._

_“I’m sorry! I’m really sorry! Please don’t! I’ll be a good girl! I swear i will!”_

_The woman opens the closet and forces the shaking little girl inside it._

_“You’re a bad girl, Touko.”_

_The girl slams the doors but it seems that the closet has been shut with the key._

_“And bad girls deserve to stay in the darkness.”_

 

She shakes her head in the hope to banish that memory.

 

_After three days inside the closet her little hands are chapped, her eyes are bloodshot and her throat is sore because of all her desperate screaming. Touko isn’t sure if it was her dad that has set her free, or the other mom, the only thing she knows is that she was hungry but also afraid to go down in the kitchen to pick up something to eat, so she just waited until it was late night._

 

Her thoughts are interrupted by a foul smell that she can’t quite pinpoint at first, until she notices something moving on her desk: there’s a stinkbug hidden between her paper sheets. Touko grumbles, that kind of bug stinks if pestered, and it smells even worse if killed, so she just picks up those sheets and gently puts the bug on a plant by the windowsill. There are a lot of cherry trees down the streets, maybe it comes from there.

She’s about to get back to work when the smell strikes back: she looks back to the window and sees the little stinkbug, exactly where she put it.

“It seems you like me” sighs, looking at the bug. “Soon you’ll regret it… like everyone else does.”

She shoots a glance to the bug one last time, and for a few seconds she has the impression that it’s wavings its antennae. Touko thinks it could be a sort of answer.

 

*

 

Two months later the bug’s still there.

Touko named her Kameko and bought a little soy plant for her on the windowsill: she’s now used to the smell, but it seems that the little bug likes its new home and so it doesn’t have a reason to stink anymore.

Time after time Touko starts to talk with the stinkbug: at first it was only about her days, but then she found herself telling everything to the bug, like her horrible school life and her even worse life at home.

“I hate my classmates. I can’t wait to enroll high school… but I could find worse people.”

Kameko pushes trough the soy leaves and approaching her.

“My book is selling well, you know, but now I’m kind of stuck. I don’t know what to write next! Maybe… maybe my talent wasn’t real!”

Kameko waves its antennae and Touko thinks it wants to cheer her up.

“I hate my dad. I hate my mom too… both my mothers. Sometimes I think that if I went away they wouldn’t even care. Maybe they would be happy instead.”

Kameko can’t answer but that’s enough for Touko: it’s just a bug, but for her it’s the most special bug in the world. It’s a precious and irreplacable bug. It’s more than just a bug, it’s her friend. Her only _friend_.

_(People suck. But at least I have Kameko.)_

 

*

Touko was more worried about Genocider Syo and about Kameko than the possibility to be killed by her classmates. Her infatuation with Byakuya-sama was also growing, but she knew she had better things to worry about. Thanks to him (or better, because of him) everybody knew about Genocider, but Touko was keeping Kameko a secret.

_(No one would ever understand.)_

They already thought she was crazy and delusional, if they would ever find out that her pet was a stinkbug it would only serve as more incriminating evidence that she has always deserved all the unkindness she has always suffered.

_(After all, people suck.)_

However she can’t really understand why Makoto Naegi keeps talking to her, asking her how she’s doing and spending time with her. _It has to be a prank for sure,_ she says to herself, _he’s just waiting the right time to laugh at me and say he has done everything just because he lost a bet with someone._

_(Maybe that Oowada jerk. Or maybe Byakuya-sama)._

But that moment never comes: Naegi is kind, he asks about herself, listen to her and never mocks her; and when he suggest her to write an I-novel Touko thinks that maybe it isn’t a bad idea, and most importantly, it doesn’t looks like a prank. Maybe she could try.

Touko writes uninterruptedly for several nights straight, and when finally puts the ending words on it the first thing she thinks is that she wants Naegi to read it.

_(People suck. But Naegi-kun is kind.)_

 

*

 

“Kameko’s just a bug, Fukawa-chi.”

Touko has always known that the little friend was just a normal bug; Hiroko Hagakure and Komaru tried to explain that to her, and at some point she had to give up and admit that Kameko was just a bug that can’t understand what Touko says.

However, she still misses it dearly and hopes to see it again soon.

_(People suck. But Komaru is nice like her brother.)_

 

*

 

“Something wrong, Fukawa-san?”

Naegi’s voice takes her back to reality, diverting her from her thoughts.

“N-nothing really” she replies, “I was just looking at the cherry trees down the street…”

“You’re thinking about Kameko, aren’t you?”

Touko nods and they call her a fool for that, but Naegi keeps smiling at her: “I’m sure it’s doing ok.”

“You do know that stinkbugs only live for nine months, right?”

Togami is sitting at one of the tables at the cafeteria, his face partially hidden by the newspaper he’s reading. Naegi lets out a heavy sigh but he’s still smiling, even when he approaches the table and looks the now ex-Heir right in the eyes: “ _Togami-san._ ”

“That being said, there are high chances that it may be still alive, if she looks like her owner.”

She knows that what Togami said is just a lie (extorted by Naegi), but that’s enough for Touko. “It will be ok” she smiles, still looking out of the window. The times in which she shut herself in her room avoiding any social interraction are long gone, and she’s gradually learning to trust some people.

The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event In Human History has changed her, Towa City changed her: she now has control over Genocider Syo, because she doesn’t want to hurt anyone anymore, she’s slowly getting over her haemophobia (but not her fear of the dark, she still hates dark places), and lastly she’s also gaining more self confidence.

People suck, Touko’s still sure of that, but she now knows that that’s not true for everyone: Naegi-kun was the first to show her that there are kind people out there; even Byakuya-sama has changed and he’s learning that social status means nothing in this world. And he’s also learning kindness, thanks to Naegi-kun.

Thinking about them as friends is something still strange for her, but she couldn’t find a better definition: even Kirigiri, Asahina and Hagakure (although she can’t really understand why the latters are already active Future Foundation members, especially the one that says he can read the future with an accuracy of 30%). And Komaru too. Touko hopes that she’s ok.

They are all _her friends_.

“Do you want some coffee, Fukawa-san?”

She nods to Naegi while thinking about her new book.

Some people say that you can’t choose your family and it’s just a matter of blood ties.

Touko has decided to prove them wrong.

_(A lot of people suck. But not all of them.)_

**Author's Note:**

> First of all: enlish is not my native language, so forgive me for any mistake!  
> This is a story i wrote some times ago, but since the italian Dangan Ronpa fandom is dead i decided it would be a good time to start translating some of my stories, and i decided that this one about Touko would be perfect as start: at first it was just a comic story in wich i would try to find a reason on why she has chose a stinkbug as pet, but then... it evolved in something else. And i liked that way. I know Touko can't really be nice, especially at first, but if we gave her the chance to do the FTE with her we can discover a lot about her... and luckily DR: AE proved us that she's really nice, at the end of the day, and she care about the people she love.  
> So tl;dr i loved to write about her, and i will continue because i love her so much.  
> Many many thanks to my flying dutchgirl [Narucch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narucch) that helped me with proof reading, and thanks to [SHSL_ex_SOLDIER](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHSL_ex_SOLDIER) who helped me with further proof reading! Thank you, talk to you is always great! :D  
> Thanks to whoever will read this, i hope you will like it!
> 
> And follow me over my tumblr, if you want, i draw a lot fo DR fanart (among other things), and i often do fanart of my own stories (i'm sad, i know): http://mana-sputachu.tumblr.com
> 
> Thanks in advance,  
> Mana


End file.
